Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities - Satartia, Mississippi

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Satartia is a village in Yazoo County, Mississippi. Sartartia, which means "pumpkin patch" in Choctaw, was incorporated in 1833. The Jewish presence in Satartia was due to the healthy trade economy that existed between the fertile Mississippi Delta and New Orleans. Satartia served as a shipping point from which the cotton of a wide area was moved by steamboat to New Orleans. Jews came from the Delta in order to serve as the merchant class in the prominent cotton trade. General Grant sailed from Vicksburg on a gunboat and took the town during the Civil War. Like other Mississippi river towns, it slowly declined in importance. The Jewish population of Satartia was short-lived, and this can be attributed to many factors including the lack of a large Jewish population, dwindling business opportunities or the dangerous living circumstances.Abe Kling arrived in Satartia in its heyday in 1850 from Watertown, New York as a traveling peddler. After finding success as a merchant with one of the largest stores in town, he encouraged his brother, Monroe Kling, to join him. Monroe Kling married Elizabeth “Lizzy” Wilson soon after his arrival, and the couple moved to Utah and had a son named Allan Kling. After the death of Elizabeth’s father, they returned to Satartia to take over his large business. Several generations of Klings existed in the town though, besides Elizabeth Kling’s purchase of the cemetery, there is little evidence of religious identification.The American Israelite mentions a number of Jewish residents living in Satartia. Brazeale Cemetery contains a number of Jewish graves. The land is fairly elevated, which makes it both safe from flooding damage and difficult to get to. Brazeale Burying Ground began as a general cemetery, but as two other cemeteries named Phoenix and Germania developed to bury the Christian citizens, the Brazeale cemetery was left exclusively for Jews.In 1889, Lizzie Kling, bought the part of Brazeale’s land. Though most of the tombs are unconfirmed as Jewish graves, many bear Jewish names and face east in the traditional Jewish fashion. Others have Hebrew inscriptions. Tombs that possibly bear evidence of Jewish existence include those of Frank and Mary Hirsch, Leah Kohler, Josephina Friedlander and Abraham Ruah.